With the closure of Chesley’s high school, the ripple effect is being felt in other ways that go beyond the classroom.

Every year CDHS athletic council has raised money for different charities throughout the community. This year the lawn bowling club discussed with Matheson how they wanted to build a couple new sheds and since lawn bowling is a big part of the Phys. Ed curriculum, the athletic council voted to help.

“They’re a small group and it’s pretty hard to cover all the stuff they have to look after,” says Matheson.

Over the last two years Chesley District High School students have been working hard to give back to the Chesley Lawn Bowling Club that has given so much to them. The CDHS athletic council raised $3000 from various fundraising events to give the club the last two sheds that they’ve been looking for.

Fundraising events included a spring and fall bottle drive as well as a couple 12-hour “sport-a-thons.” Students had to come to the school at 7 a.m. and play sports non-stop until 7 that night. Phys Ed teacher Don Matheson says, “we had close to 40 kids and each kid had to bring in or raise $40 in pledges.”

Lawn Bowling Club member Bruce Pieroway is sad that last week was the final time CDHS students would be coming lawn bowling. He believes “in a small local setting like this you get better quality individuals because they’re taught that sense of community.”

Now that students have to find education in different towns, Pieroway is afraid that sense of community will be lost.

“Almost all the kids that come out of there have been taught what community is…and you’re not going to get that by cattle herding them off to various towns everywhere else,” he says.

Pieroway is hoping to get more people interested in lawn bowling so a Friday Night Lights program has been set up. Every Friday this summer until September at 7:30 p.m. anyone is welcome to come try out free lawn bowling.

Pieroway says, “we’re trying to get people within the community of all ages to come out.”

Once the sheds are finished a plaque will be put up thanking the last class of CDHS for their donation and dedication to this project.

Matheson hopes the community will come and see how the hard work of the CDHS students paid off. He says, “let this be a last memory from the last class of Chesley District High School.”